Mot Bad and good.

mabo

Club Member
Nov 13, 2011
4,259
3,900
south wales
In a brave attempt at a brief post....
My daily driver ( suzi GV 1600 ) failed the MOT, curses. It's going to take me a little while to sort her out.
The garage was able to book the mot for the cougar at short notice, The Cougar went through the MOT this morning. As per my st200 cams thread she has been off the road for a while.
Result Pass.
Smiles all round, on me.
She's still burning the spilled oil off the front manifold so she won't be going far just yet but at least I can get the engine up to temp more easily with some short trips around the block.
 
Sure will Mr Dabooka. The leaking GV rad is out for repair to start the ball rolling.
Brake pipes and tools are on order ( almost ) I need her back on the road for the winter, I won't be driving the cougar through winter salt!
 
As a minor update. The GV now has. New rad to get rid of a persistent water leak, home made replacement front disc brake shields welded to the remains of the old ones so the worst of the rot cut out ( prob 75% of the shield ) with the remaining treated and the whole lot hammerited. Front calipers cleaned, freed off slide pins greased new pads and more hammerite on the calipers. ( replacing the whole shield would mean stripping more apart than I want to at present.
The shield, worst section removed.
the remains.jpg
Below the replacement, made from the thin steel of a scrap light fitting.
the replacement.jpg
And below again the shield fitted, I did this to both sides.
fitted.jpg

2 of the 3 fuel lines that go front to back along the chassis replaced, the 3rd is already newer. New fuel filter and the associated bracket de rusted and painted. 2 brake lines that run parallel with the fuel lines replaced with copper. They run from a 2 in 2 out coupler at the front to something mounted above the rear axle and connected to the axle by a spring ( think its got something to do with weight bias ? ) this is 2 in one out with a bleed nipple at the top. So far I've pedal pumped 2.5 litres of brake fluid through these 2 parrallel lines, I've still got no pedal and 2 inch long bubbles appearing in the bleed flexi to the bleed bottle. I don't think she's sucking in air but to still have so much air coming out seems excessive, I hate bleeding brakes. Any thoughts guys ?
 
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Yeah sounds like you got air in the abs pump, that's a sod to shift without a laptop and software

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Either that or one of your bleed nipples is leaking past the thread, try wrapping ptfe tape around the threaded portion only before bleeding
 
Cheers TC, This is the pauper model of the GV1600, 04 year, I don't think it's got ABS but I could be wrong. I bought it for it's simplicity and the fact that it's got a chassis.
Does the thread form a seal ? I thought the seal was just the flare pipe end into the receiving shape of the connector. This joint compressed together by the threaded nipple, similar to good old fashioned copper compression fittings, the seal being formed by the olive deforming onto the copper, metal to metal. and increasing the height at the rear so any air will migrate to the bleed nipple at the rear.

I'm considering dropping the front wheels back onto the floor as I don't need the height under there now, my two joint there are bone dry so presumably no air getting in as no fluid coming out. But there are 2 humps in each pipe where they go over the top of cross members so air is bound to gather at these high points
 
TC, I'm not referring to the bleed nipple ( which I think you are in your post above ) I mean the male threaded insert that forces the flared pipe end into the fitting thereby forcing the flare into the female receiving taper, I have some doubt about one of these, I can't get it as tight as I'd like due to access issues. It's close to the bleed nipple so does it get wet from the bleed nipple or is it leaking fluid under pressure ? that's my query to solve. With Mrs Mabo on the pedal and a mirror to let me view the connection there is no visible change around that connection when the pedal is stroked.
Over night it's occurred to me that the large bubbles I can see in the bleed tube are possibly getting into the top of the bleed tube on the up stroke of the pedal. Tomorrow I'll try to make that connection more secure and try to eliminate that possibility. There are micro bubbles too so maybe they are coming from the brake line itself. As is sometime the way writing thing down and reading back gets the grey matter thinking differently. I guess by Monday I'll know more
 
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After an odd weekend of being up half the night to watch Moto GP coverage live from Australia, and booking Ryan air flights for an unexpected trip to Valencia in a few weeks time. We're not the biggest fans of flying so this is our first with Ryanair but we suddenly had an opportunity we couldn't refuse.
I finally found the time to sneak into the garage for an hour.
1st job, tie wrap around the bleed tube, tricky to get at but finally success. Then back onto pumping the pedal whilst watching the bleed tube, achieved using a metre long length of 2 x 2 through the open car door, after pumping another litre of fluid through I'm no better off, I've still got these 2 inch long bubbles on every stroke. It's got to be sucking air in somewhere.
So I give up, I close the bleed nipple underneath and strip off my gloves and overalls. I'm going to give it to my trusted mechanic, the tricky part will be driving it the mile or two downhill with no brakes, She's 4WD so plenty of inertia in that mode, and I've got a handbrake !
I'll have to get the wheels back on and drop her off the axle stands. Has she got any pedal, now the bleed nipple is closed can I pump up any pressure ? I slipped my left leg through the drivers door and pumped at the pedal, is there some resistance there ? Nah the pedal still goes all the way too the floor, But repeated pumping seems to give a little pressure. What's that noise? on each down stroke I can hear a tiny squirt. Wow she's squirting fluid out somewhere, that'll identify the source of the air getting in. Now I'm smiling again. I just need Mrs Mabo in the drivers seat and me underneath to identify the source, but not today.
I reckon it'll be that connection I struggled to reach and can't get as tight as I would like it to be. I just need to find a way to tighten the damn thing. OK, lets confirm the theory with Mrs Mabo on the pedal one evening next week.
The challenge continues.
 
It's been a frustrating time.
Mid week I found the time to sneak into the garage for an hour. The intention was to unbolt the brake balancy thing from its bracket and thereby gain space to fit the nipple spanner in place and tighten the suspect connection. So I rolled underneath the car and looked around for the spanner I left under there a few days ago. Hang on there's a rear brake drum lying under the car over there....
Lots of F words then came out of my mouth. On the failed MOT there was an advisory that one of the rear wheel bearings had a little play. Several weeks ago I pulled the drum off to investigate bearing replacement. I established I'd need to totally strip the brake and pull the half shaft. There was more important stuff to be done, such as pipes that were an MOT fail. I'll leave the drum off for now, maybe I'll do more on it later. Roll on several weeks replacing fuel and brake pipes and I'd forgotten the drum was off.
So I've spent several weeks pumping the damn brake system, all be it with air in the system with a rear drum not fitted to hold the shoes and slave cylinder pistons in place. Mabo you are a prime idiot, you know better than to make this rooky error.
So I squeezed around the other side of the car to inspect the damage, The shoes have been pushed out until they hit a rim on the brake back plate and stopped there. The 2 pistons are well extended but will they slide back ? As soon as I touched it the handbrake self adjusting mechanism fell off, hell were did that fit ?
I then spent an hour doing a jigsaw without the guide picture and all behind the large flange that carries the wheel, studs and all. I got it all together with considerable difficulty. Screwdriver, long nose pliers, long nose mole grips and numerous other bits and pieces. Finished but the shoes are too far out to refit the drum. The self adjusting mechanism isn't right but hell so long as I can get the drum on the local trusty mech can sort it out because my patience is gone. Why the heck wont the shoes retract further, If I push the pistons in they soon pop out again, I guess there is air in there cylinder which I can squash to push the pistons back but soon expands back to hold the shoes out. Heck I've had enough for tonight. I returned to the house in a pretty foul mood at my own stupidity.
Given a few days to ponder and accepting that I've missed the month start to tax the car I returned to the garage today with a plan.
Pull the other drum off and check if I've got the first side assembled right. Job done, I made some minor changes and now I'm confident the handbrake self adjust is the same on both sides. Refit the drum on the good side.
Now, bad side push the pistons back in, wrap a tie wrap around the entire slave cylinder to hold the pistons retracted, Set the self adjuster to 0 so it isn't holding the shoes out, Partially refit drum. Cut off the tye wrap then drive the drum fully home, It's very tight but at least it's on. Next I gave the brake pedal a few strokes, wow I've actually got a pedal, I know it must still have air but at least there's some resistance there.
Work stopped whilst some errands had to be completed for the trip to Valencia. A few hours later and I dived back into the garage. OK lets see if I can sort this possible hydraulic leak.
I unbolted the brake balancy thing from its bracket and even with 3 copper pipes and a flexi in place I was still able to lower it an inch or so. Slide the nipple spanner onto the fitting, brace the housing against its own mounting bracket and heave on the spanner. I probably achieved about half a turn on it, any more and I might strip threads, that's enough. Ease it back onto the bracket, fit one of the 2 bolts. Climb up top, foot onto the pedal, lots of resistance and no squirty sound. Now we're getting somewhere refit the 2nd bolt and tighten them both up.
OK time for bleeding again, I got much reduced bubbles but still more than I'd expect. Maybe it's sucking in through the bleed valve. Pull it up tight closed, move the bleed bottle to the end of the line, on the brake I blew apart. WD 40 the nipple, Vaseline the hose fitting in an attempt to stop it sucking in air, Open the nipple. Several strokes of the pedal and I can hear air bubbling out of the bleed pipe, several more strokes of silence. Top the master up, repeat several times, no more air bubble heard. Visual shows the bleed hose free of bubbles. OK, Close the bleed nipple, remove the bleed pipe and bottle, try the pedal, wow that's good, feels much less travel than I had before this farce was commenced.
I do believe we can call this job a success. The drum on one side is still way too tight but I'm not for stripping it again at the moment. Plan is finish re assembly and give her to my MOT man.

Free off the dragging brake and MOT her will be the instruction. It's going to take some time to finish reassembly and get her back on the ground. I've also found the one front brake pad slider that I lost when working on the front brakes so I need to fit that before she goes to MOT.
 
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TC well done for reading it all ! if I crack the nipple will she suck in air ? I don't think they're held out hydraulically, They still wouldn't go back very far even with the pistons retained. I could crack the bleed nipple with a hose attached in some fluid so she sucks fluid instead of air ?
And Pmsfl = ?
 
Well I'm more than happy to entertain you guys. Know I understand why TC is silent, he's off to change his underwear !!!

I'll give it a go tomorrow, cracking the nipple that is, not peeing myself !!!
 
Bleed nipple dribble allowed, dribble until it dribbled no more. I still cant turn the drum, not in gear, handbrake off.
To determine this 100% all wheels refitted and lowered to the ground, tried to drive her out of the garage. She's going nowhere. that brake is def on ! Next weekend I'll strip the shoes completely apart and start again
I guess I'm still a plank but hopefully not in the way you thought TC.